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Magikarp Line/DPPt
Magikarp can be found in every single area in the game where water is present. Fishing with an Old Rod gives you a 100% chance to get Magikarp, fishing with a Good Rod has a fairly high chance of fishing up a Magikarp as well. Gyarados can be found in all these areas as well, when fishing with a Super Rod. In the Great Marsh, Gyarados can be fished up with a Good Rod as well. In Resort Area, you can only find Magikarp in Platinum, not Gyarados. Many people have laughed at Magikarp for being extremely weak. Of course, these people are right. Should it not have been for Magikarp's evolution, then this Pokémon would be undeniably one of the worst Pokémon to get in a nuzlocke. But Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, a god-tier Pokémon should you be playing a nuzlocke. Gyarados's evolution occurs early enough, it has nice bulk combined with the Ability Intimidate, and thanks to Generation IV's physical/special split, a lot of Gyarados's moves powered up for it. Of course, Gyarados has a few downsides, but those are easily overshadowed by its sheer power. Important Matchups - Platinum = * Rival (Route 203): You still have a Magikarp by now. Never use Magikarp in battle. * Gym #1 - Roark (Oreburgh City, Rock-type): You still have a Magikarp by now. Never use Magikarp in battle. * Mars (Valley Windworks): You still have a Magikarp by now. Never use Magikarp in battle. * Gym #2 - Gardenia (Eterna City, Grass-type): At this point, you might have Gyarados already. If you don't, then again, don't use Magikarp ever. Turtwig can't do a lot to Gyarados, except put up a Reflect. Gets taken down pretty easily. Cherrim is tricky, as it has Leech Seed, and is bulkier than a regular Cherubi. It's a good idea to keep Gyarados away here. Roserade's Magical Leaf and Grass Knot can hit hard, but not too hard. A 3-hit KO is possible if Reflect isn't up. Although, Flying- or Fire-types are a better alternative for Roserade. * Jupiter (Galactic Eterna Building): Zubat goes down quickly. Skuntank is risky, as it both has Night Slash and Screech. Critical Night Slashes will hit everything hard, and that includes Gyarados. Get a Dragon Rage or two in, but switch after that if Skuntank is still alive. * Gym #3 - Fantina (Hearthome City, Ghost-type): Duskull's Will-O-Wisp will cripple your Gyarados's Attack. Best not use it there, unless you can OHKO with Bite or heal the burn later on. Haunter is faster, but goes down to Bite. Mismagius hits hard, but Gyarados' Special Defense stat is not to be trifled with. Bite also takes Mismagius down. * Rival (Hearthome City): Staravia's Intimidate and Endeavor are annoying. Deal with it as soon as possible, then switch out because of the Attack drop. There's nothing else in his team that can really hurt Gyarados, though, except for Curse Grotle, which still has a way to go before denting Gyarados significantly. * Gym #4 - Maylene (Veilstone City, Fighting-type): Meditite and Machoke both boast Rock Tomb, which is dangerous for Gyarados, but not impossible. Lucario goes down if you taught your Gyarados the TM Fire Blast from the Veilstone Department Store, or Flamethrower from the Game Corner. * Rival (Pastoria City): Basically still the same as before, except Gyarados can have Thunder for Staravia now and Fire Blast for Grotle. Nothing's too threatening anymore. * Gym #5 - Crasher Wake (Pastoria City, Water-type): Thanks to you teaching your Gyarados how to use Thunder, or maybe Thunderbolt, Wake's Gyarados goes down quickly. Quagsire is a different story: leave it to a Pokémon with Grass-type moves. Floatzel isn't really dangerous, and falls to Thunder or Thunderbolt easily as well, but be wary of its crits and Defense drops when it uses Crunch. * Cyrus (Celestic Town): Fire Blast and Thunder, and you've got a complete sweep. Sneasel goes down to Fire Blast, Golbat and Murkrow to Thunder. Alternatively, teach Gyarados Aqua Tail, as none of his Pokémon can't take that move either. * Rival (Canalave City): Staraptor has no real way of hitting hard, except if it should crit Take Down or Aerial Ace. Thunder takes it out. Floatzel can't hit you, Thunder destroys. Roserade doesn't like Fire Blast, but has GrassWhistle and Leech Seed to strike back. Be careful here, a Fire- or Flying-type does better. Rapidash falls quickly to Aqua Tail. Heracross goes down to Fire Blast, two of them at best. Ice Fang obliterates Torterra, and Infernape runs when it hears about Aqua Tail. Empoleon could have been an issue if it could hit Gyarados, but it can't, so Thunder takes it out. All in all not too hard, but it's preferred to keep Gyarados away from Staraptor and Roserade. * Gym #6 - Byron (Canalave City, Steel-type): Magneton has Thunderbolt, which destroys Gyarados. Don't try. Steelix can't hit it, though, and Fire Blast takes it down easily. Bastiodon is risky if your Gyarados doesn't know Earthquake. It can use Stone Edge, which has a high rate of critical hitting, and is super effective. Try to keep Gyarados away there. * Saturn (Lake Valor): Saturn's Golbat isn't too hard. Thunder, Ice Fang or Aqua Tail takes it down, albeit after using probably Toxic. Bronzor has Rock Tomb, but terrible Attack, so with either Fire Blast or Aqua Tail, Gyarados takes it out. Toxicroak gets hit hard by Aqua Tail, but can strike back hard with Poison Jab. You do not want that move to crit. A Psychic- or Flying-type is preferred to take out Toxicroak. * Mars (Lake Verity): Mars's Golbat isn't too hard. Thunder, Ice Fang or Aqua Tail takes it down, albeit after using Toxic. Bronzor can use Iron Defense, but goes down to Fire Blast easily. Purugly can get ugly, but if you have Awakenings to neutralize her Hypnosis, then she's no problem. Aqua Tail deals with the creature. * Gym #7 - Candice (Snowpoint City, Ice-type): Sneasel and Abomasnow fall to Fire Blast almost immediately, Piloswine can't take Aqua Tail. The main danger of her team is Froslass, though. Thanks to Snow Cloak and Double Team, Froslass will dodge a lot of attacks, and make Blizzard always hit in a hailstorm. Once Gyarados gets two to three clear hits, it's over, though. Pack healing items. * Cyrus (Galactic HQ): Gyarados is able to fully sweep Cyrus's team, but it'll need help. First, if Sneasel hits Screech, switch out as soon as Sneasel is down. The two other Pokémon will hit hard with their physical moves. However, if Sneasel did not use this, Gyarados can take down the two others as well thanks to Thunder. Watch out for Honchkrow, though. Even if Drill Peck isn't the most powerful move, it comes off from a base 125 Attack stat. * Saturn (Galactic HQ): Golbat now has Poison Fang instead of Toxic. Take it out quickly, before it can badly poison you. Bronzor no longer knows Rock Tomb, so taking it out with Fire Blast became easier. Toxicroak still has Poison Jab, but Gyarados should be able to take it thanks to Aqua Tail. Be careful of Poison Jab's poisoning effect, though. It's still recommended to let a Flying- or Psychic-type deal with Toxicroak. * Mars and Jupiter (Spear Pillar, tag battle with rival): Jupiter's Bronzor has Reflect and Rock Slide, and Mars's Bronzor Light Screen and Confuse Ray. Use your new move Dragon Dance to set up on them, while healing your confusions. After setting up, focus on Mars first, since her Bronzor's the only one that can use Confuse Ray. Sweep Mars' team, then focus on Jupiter's, you'll sweep her just as easily. * Cyrus (Distortion World): Houndoom knows Thunder Fang. Stay away. Set up on his next Pokémon with Dragon Dances, and sweep the rest of his team. Be careful of Weavile's and Honchkrow's Night Slashes, with the high crit rates, and Crobat's Confuse Ray and Toxic combo. It is preferred to set up against his own Gyarados if you can, but again, Giga Impact does not joke around. * Giratina (Distortion World): Watch out for Ominous Wind's and AncientPower's occasional stat boosts, as well as AncientPower alone dealing supereffective damage, but otherwise you should be fine. Set up Dragon Dances, profit. * Gym #8 - Volkner (Sunyshore City, Electric-type): All Electric-types that know Electric-type moves. Stay away. * Rival (Pokémon League): Nothing in the team can truly hurt Gyarados, except for Heracross who now knows Rock Slide. Set up Dragon Dances against Staraptor, and look out when it uses U-turn. If it switches to Heracross or Roserade, take them out immediately due to them having Rock Slide and GrassWhistle, respectively. Everything else is more or less safe to set up on... assuming you need to set up further. * Elite Four Aaron (Pokémon League, Bug-type): Yanmega boasts both Double Team and Air Slash, which it won't hesitate to use against Gyarados. Set up Dragon Dances, and watch out when it U-turns to either Heracross or Vespiquen. The former knows Stone Edge, and the latter Power Gem. Waterfall can sweep his whole team after enough Dragon Dances. * Elite Four Bertha (Pokémon League, Ground-type): Whiscash has Sandstorm and Zen Headbutt, but that's about it. Again, Dragon Dance, Waterfall, sweep team. * Elite Four Flint (Pokémon League, Fire-type): Houndoom can use Dark Pulse to hit your Gyarados, which won't do much on its high Special Defense stat, and Sunny Day to weaken its Water-attacks. Set up on Dragon Dances, and sweep his entire team. * Elite Four Lucian (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): Around here, you'll need your first Ether / Elixir / whatever PP restoring item, as both Waterfall and Dragon Dance will be running out of steam. Lucian leads with Mr. Mime, which is the first lead in the League Gyarados can not set up on. It has Thunderbolt, so Gyarados needs to stay on the sidelines. After that, Gallade boasts Stone Edge, so stay away there as well. If Lucian goes for something else as his second Pokémon (Alakazam, Espeon or Bronzong) do not hesitate to set up Dragon Dances there, and sweep the rest of his team. Watch out for Bronzong's Calm Minds and the Special Defense drops due to Psychic, though. * Champion Cynthia (Pokémon League): Set up on Spiritomb, but watch out for Shadow Ball and Psychic lowering your Special Defense. Proceed to sweep Cynthia's team with Gyarados, only using Waterfall, except against Roserade and Milotic. Take those two out with Return or Earthquake. * Post-Game: Nothing stops Gyarados, except for Electric- and Rock-types. Due to Dragon Dances, it still sweeps the team in almost every major battle. }} Moves A level 1 Magikarp comes with its first move, Splash. This move is literally worthless and should never be used. At level 15, it learns Tackle, which is still worthless if it's still a Magikarp. If you caught your Magikarp at level 30 or later, then it will have Flail, a slightly more useful move, but still not really that Gyarados could use later on. A wild Gyarados of level 28 or lower will come with Thrash (learned at level 1), Bite (level 20), Dragon Rage (level 23) and Leer (level 26). If you evolved your Magikarp at level 20, that means it will still learn all these moves, except for Thrash, which you will need a Heart Scale for. At level 29, Gyarados learns Twister, which will hardly hit anything super effectively. Combined with its low power and Gyarados' mediocre Special Attack stat... well, this means that the move is virtually useless. Level 32 comes with Ice Fang, a more useful move to hit Grass- and Flying-types. At level 35, Gyarados learns Aqua Tail, an incredibly powerful move for the Pokémon, that it should definitely learn. Rain Dance comes at level 38, but it isn't really useful. Then comes Hydro Pump, a powerful special Water-type move, at level 41, but unless your Gyarados has a higher Special Attack than Attack for some unholy reason, Hydro Pump is weaker than Aqua Tail. Dragon Dance comes at level 44, and gives Gyarados one of the greatest set-up moves in the game. With it, Gyarados can sweep the League almost on its own, so it should definitely be learned. Hyper Beam comes at level 47, but it's not a good move on Gyarados at all. The first useful TM move Gyarados can get, is Return. In Platinum, it is handed to you early by professor Rowan. In Diamond and Pearl, you can still get TM Return in Lost Tower and in the Veilstone Game Corner. You can get it there as well in Platinum. Other useful TMs that Gyarados can get from the Veilstone Game Corner are Thunderbolt, Ice Beam and Flamethrower. But due to Gyarados's low Special Attack stat, it is instead recommended to buy Thunder, Blizzard and Fire Blast in the Veilstone Department Store. Thunder can also be found in Lake Valor, Blizzard in Lake Acuity, and Fire Blast in Lake Verity. Thunderbolt can also be found behind Valley Windworks, Flamethrower in Fuego Ironworks and Ice Beam on Route 216. Earthquake is another TM Gyarados appreciates. It can be found in Wayward Cave, by entering the hidden entrance. It can also be bought with Battle Points at the Battle Tower in Diamond and Pearl and the Battle Frontier in Platinum, but this is only accessible after the first League challenge. Waterfall is another great move for Gyarados. Its power is slightly lower than Aqua Tail's, but in return Waterfall has 100% accuracy, whereas Aqua Tail has 90%. It is recommended to take Waterfall over Aqua Tail as soon as possible. The last of the useful TMs is Stone Edge, which can be found in Victory Road. After the first League challenge, it can only be bought with Battle Points in the Battle Tower in Diamond and Pearl, and in the Battle Frontier in Platinum. Recommended moveset: Dragon Dance, Waterfall, Earthquake, Return / Ice Fang Other Magikarp's stats Gyarados' stats * What Nature do I want? A lot of Natures work on Gyarados, but the best would be Adamant, which boosts Attack and lowers Special Attack, or Jolly, which boosts Speed but lowers Special Attack. Impish (+Defense -Special Attack) and Careful (+Special Defense -Special Attack) are pretty good as well. * When should I be evolved? As soon as possible, preferably before Gardenia. While Magikarp is useless, always, Gyarados fares pretty well against almost everything in the region. * How good is the Magikarp line in a Nuzlocke? Incredibly powerful, maybe even the most useful Pokémon in a nuzlocke through Sinnoh. Its only drawbacks are that it's a Magikarp at first, and that it levels slowly. Incredibly bulk and Attack, plus Dragon Dance, and a typing that can hardly be hit super effectively make more than up for it, though. Magikarp's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Grass, Electric * Resistances: Fire, Water, Ice, Steel * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Dark, Dragon, Normal, Bug, Fighting, Psychic, Ground, Rock, Poison, Flying, Ghost Gyarados' type matchups: * Weaknesses: Rock, Electric (x4) * Resistances: Fighting, Bug, Steel, Fire, Water * Immunities: Ground * Neutralities: Normal, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Grass, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Dark Category:Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses